Icarus Rising
Authors: Bernadette Gardner
Icarus Rising
by Bernadette Gardner
Atlantic Bridge
www.atlanticbridge.net
Copyright ©2010 by Bernadette Gardner
First published in 2010
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Icarus Rising
by Bernadette Gardner
CONTENTS
* * * *
Icarus Rising
by Bernadette Gardner
Published by Liquid Silver Books, Imprint of Atlantic Bridge
Publishing, 10509 Sedgegrass Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Copyright 2010, Bernadette Gardner. All rights reserved. No
part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the authors.
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and
dialogues in this book are of the author's imagination and are
not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events
or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
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Blurb
To save a dying race, sociologist Caleb Faulkner will forfeit
his humanity. He has volunteered to join with an alien
creature in order to take part in an ambitious breeding
program designed to spare the dominant race on the planet
Icarus from certain extinction.
Dr. Zara Abbott has spent months helping to prepare Caleb
for the joining, hiding her feelings for the man who will
become the mate to an Icarian female as soon as he receives
his symbiotic wings. When the joining proves disastrous,
Caleb and his alien symbion can think of only one thing,
mating with Zara. After so long preparing to sacrifice Caleb to
the Icarians, will she be able to refuse the man who makes
her heart take flight?
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With a sense of dread Zara Abbott eyed the brilliant blue-
green Icarian sky and pursed her lips in disdain. Why couldn't
yesterday's rare tropical storm have lasted a while longer?
Guilt over her feelings about this day gnawed at her
insides. A sip of chocolate-infused coffee from the dispenser
in the lab cafeteria did little to soothe her unrest, so she
dumped the cup of still-steaming liquid into the recycler and
turned her gaze away from the tempered windows that
looked onto the research island's northeastern facing beach.
The weather was now perfect for the Icarian bonding ritual
to take place. She sighed and headed back toward the small
alcove that served as her office in the laboratory compound,
still praying for a little more rain.
Today was the day she would lose Caleb, and she just
wasn't ready.
On her way through the research station's infirmary, Zara
ran into Dr. Raymond Danson. The geneticist headed the
modest, twenty-person xeno-anthropology expedition which
had been dispatched to the planet Icarus not only to establish
a friendly relationship with the native inhabitants, but to help
discover the reason why, on this pristine, primitive world, the
population of the dominant intelligent species had suffered a
steady and near devastating decline, leaving them with barely
ten thousand adult individuals, most of whom could not
procreate.
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"Isn't this exciting?" Danson asked when Zara passed
within his field of vision. Like a small boy given free run in a
toy shop, Danson seemed to bounce on the balls of his feet.
His dark brown eyes sparkled with barely contained glee. All
his research had led to this, and as heavy as the day's events
weighed on Zara's heart, she understood the man's
enthusiasm. If everything went according to his plans today
and in the weeks to come, he would be credited with saving a
dying race. Who wouldn't find that prospect thrilling?
"Where is the man of the hour, anyway?" Zara hoped her
change of subject would cover the fact that she didn't want to
answer Danson's question. In a half-hearted attempt to
appear both busy and anxious, she began arranging the
equipment Danson and his medical team would be using to
monitor the initial results of today's grand experiment.
The geneticist tilted his head for a second, as if he really
had no idea where his star test subject might be. Then he
smiled and jerked a thumb in the general direction of the
majestic arc of pale green sand that stretched nearly a
kilometer between two rock promontories on the island's
northern shore. "He's taking a swim, I believe. The Icarian
cleansing ritual is the first part of the bonding."
This was the first step for Caleb in trading a portion of his
humanity away. Zara squelched the toxic thought. As a xeno-
psychotherapist, she'd been trained to understand the
thought processes of non-human minds, and she'd chosen
this remote post specifically to help the man in question
handle the monumental transition he was about to undergo.
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Repressing her own feelings on the subject was part of her
job.
"I should go find him," she said, still fiddling with the
placement of the rolling monitors around the extra-wide
diagnostic bed, which had been placed in the center of the
infirmary. "To make sure he's fully prepared."
Danson made a non-committal sound that told Zara he'd
moved past worrying whether or not Caleb Faulkner was
ready for the bonding. Grudgingly, Zara had to admit she fully
understood Danson's viewpoint. At this stage in his research,
the man was incapable of accepting a delay or even the most
remote possibility of failure. He'd worked too long toward his
intended outcome. The insinuation, however subtle, that his
human guinea pig might, at the last moment, change his
mind, was beyond Danson's ability to consider.
Zara decided not to pursue the discussion any further. The
person she needed to speak to was Caleb. He was the star of
today's show and the one with the power to make or break
Danson's research, which had proven the Icarians could no
longer reproduce due to a stagnation of their DNA. Caleb's
health and safety, his desires and needs were paramount
today.
Danson's were secondary. Zara's weren't even a blip on
the radar.
She said nothing else to Danson. Leaving him to his final,
meticulous preparations, she hurried through the infirmary,
nodding politely to the few other research-station staff
members she passed on her way out to the beach.
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It didn't take her long to find him. Her breath caught when
she saw him emerge from the gentle Icarian surf. When she
realized he was naked and slightly aroused her face heated.
Instinct bade her to turn away, but some repressed need
made her indulge instead in a long, intoxicating look at the
perfect muscular form of the man she'd lusted after since the
day she first set foot on Icarus.
Wet now and swept back from his clean-shaven face, his
chestnut brown hair just reached his shoulders. Sculpted
biceps and pectorals attested to the fact that, though he
spent most of his time studying the culture and customs of
the native Icarians, he didn't neglect his physical health.
Daily swims in the warm, clear ocean water and
weightlifting in the research station's modest gymnasium kept
him stunningly fit. Even without the athlete's physique,
though, Caleb would have inspired Zara's fantasies. The color
of his eyes matched the mesmerizing blue-green of Icarus's
planet-wide ocean. His voice, deep and cultured, made her
knees slightly weak, and his self-deprecating humor made
him approachable and easy to talk to.
Like Adonis, rising from the primordial waters, he was
perfect. Or perhaps, in this case, the name of the Greek man
of myth for whom the planet had been named represented
more precisely what Caleb would become. Today, when he
accepted a genetic bonding to the winged Icarian bird called a
symbion, Caleb would herald a new era on Icarus and
hopefully become the first father of the race's new
generation. Zara only hoped the ancient myth's modern
counterpart wouldn't meet the same tragic fate.
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Caleb Faulkner battled his natural tendency toward self-
consciousness and forced himself not to run for cover at the
sight of Zara Abbott strolling down the beach toward him.
Rather than duck behind a nearby rock or scramble for the
towel he'd brought along for his ritual skinny dip and spare
them both an awkward encounter, he squared his shoulders
and channeled his inner Icarian, the one he'd been trying to
develop with Zara's help for the last twelve months.
Members of the planet's dominant humanoid species rarely
wore clothing. In the tropical latitudes where most of the
population now lived, they didn't need any protection from
the moderate temperatures, and their bodies were naturally
immune to the effects of the strong sunlight. Once he was
accepted into their society as a fully-joined adult male, he
wouldn't be expected to wear them either, except of course
when he returned to visit the research station.
He had to conquer his modesty, and as much as it pained
him, now was as good a time as any to begin. If only he
wasn't getting a hard-on from just watching Zara walk, it
might not be so bad. As usual, she looked fantastic. Her
golden-blonde hair blew behind her in the gentle breeze off
the ocean, and her stride, long and confident, accentuated
the sway of her hips. She wore shorts that showed off her
tanned legs, and a sleeveless shirt that pulled just tight
enough across her breasts to make his cock sit up and take
notice. At least once he joined with his symbion, he would
gain the ability to control his bio-physical reactions. That
would be a relief.
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